Each
year during May, through the vehicle of Older Americans Month, our Nation
honors its senior citizens for their many contributions to our country, its
communities, and its families. The vast majority of older Americans are active
members of society -- working, creating, volunteering, or simply enjoying the
fruits of long years of service to others. As parents and grandparents, they
extend their contributions through formation of coming generations of our
citizens -- their children and grandchildren. The commerce of love between
generations -- fulfillment of a duty and recognition of a debt -- is a ballast
that steadies our national enterprise on its voyage from past to future.

Not
every older American leads an ideal life, however. Regrettably, some suffer
from abuse and neglect, wounds all the more grievous for everything these
citizens have done to build and strengthen this land of liberty. For these men
and women, years that should be full of satisfaction and appreciation become
instead manacles of torment and disrespect from which they cannot escape.

Abuse
can take many forms -- physical, mental, or emotional. It can come from family
members, friends, or professionals; it can even be self-inflicted. Neglect is
also a form of abuse, a manifestation of carelessness that can be seen even in
situations where an elderly person's basic needs for food and shelter are being
met. Loneliness, of course, is its most obvious sign, and fortunately the most
easily cured by others.

Abuse
and neglect reach their ultimate expression, of course, in occasional cases of
-- and even organized calls for -- euthanasia of the elderly infirm. Older
Americans have done their duty. In their twilight years, especially, it is our
duty to them that matters. No elderly person should live in fear that he or she
is a burden to others or that his or her life will be cut short for reasons of
utility or convenience. We can never have too many reminders that the gift of
life is ours to cherish and preserve from malice and harm until natural death.

Across
our country, State and Area Agencies on Aging, social service, and law
enforcement agencies are supporting programs to deal effectively with the
difficult problems posed by abuse of the elderly. I urge every concerned
American to help ensure that local programs are available to educate people
about these problems and to assist both the older person and the abuser to get
the help they need.

The
Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 222, has designated the week of May 1
through May 7, 1988, as ``National Older
Americans Abuse Prevention Week'' and has authorized and requested the
President to issue a proclamation in observance of the week.

Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby proclaim the week of May
1, 1988,
through May 7, 1988, as National Older
Americans Abuse Prevention Week. I urge all government agencies, every
community, and every American to observe this period with appropriate
activities and to strive to assure that every older American can enjoy what the
poet called that honor, love, and obedience ``that should accompany old age.''

In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of May, in the year
of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the two hundred and
twelfth.

Ronald
Reagan

[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register, 12:05 p.m., May 6, 1988]